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Five Elizabethan Songs

Recordings

'Another fine addition to the Hyperion treasure-house of vocal recordings' (The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs)‘If … at the very thought of hazy June fields, your eyes mist up or you feel a lump in the throat, then this record is for you. On it, the tenor ...» More

'An indispensable collection for those who know the repertoire; a revelation to those who do not' (Gramophone)'If you enjoy English song, this set is a must … The singers are Britain's best, and their excellence is matched by the accompaniments of Cliffor ...» More

'A top British soprano shines in a recital that should appeal well beyond her shores. The programme is delightful, and so are the performances' (Gramo ...'The programme is well chosen, with familiar songs alongside some that have been unjustly neglected. Dawson’s performances are wholly intelligent, ni ...» More

Sleep is a reconciling,
A rest that peace begets;
Doth not the sun rise smiling
When fair at e’en he sets?
Rest you, then, rest, sad eyes!
Melt not in weeping,
While she lies sleeping,
Softly now, softly lies
Sleeping.

Under the greenwood tree
Who loves to lie with me,
And tune his merry note
Unto the sweet bird’s throat,
Come hither, come hither, come hither:
Here shall he see
No enemy
But winter and rough weather.

Who doth ambition shun,
And loves to live in the sun,
Seeking the food he eats,
And pleas’d with what he gets,
Come hither, come hither, come hither:
Here shall he see
No enemy
But winter and rough weather.

Under the greenwood tree
Who loves to lie with me,
And tune his merry note
Unto the sweet bird’s throat,
Come hither, come hither, come hither:
Here shall he see
No enemy
But winter and rough weather.

Who doth ambition shun,
And loves to live in the sun,
Seeking the food he eats,
And pleas’d with what he gets,
Come hither, come hither, come hither:
Here shall he see
No enemy
But winter and rough weather.

Come, sleep, and with thy sweet deceiving
Lock me in delight awhile;
Let some pleasing dream beguile
All my fancies, that from thence
I may feel an influence,
All my powers of care bereaving.

Tho’ but a shadow, but a sliding,
Let me know some little joy.
We, that suffer long annoy,
Are contented with a thought
Thro’ an idle fancy wrought:
O let my joys have some abiding.

John Fletcher (1579-1625)

Belloc’s text was the subject of one of Ivor Gurney’s finest settings, written in 1920. One of his most enduring settings, however, was Sleep, the fourth of Five Elizabethan Songs written during the first half of 1912 while Gurney was studying with Stanford at the RCM. Gurney’s instincts were principally of the late nineteenth century where German lieder, filtered through the English Lyrics of Parry, were the defining imperatives. This can be felt not only in the harmonic idiom of Gurney’s songs but also in the disposition of part-writing, the spacing of chords, and the love of multiple appoggiaturas, all enclosed within fundamentally diatonic parameters. In Sleep, a setting of Fletcher’s well-known lyric, Gurney conveys the poem’s sense of personal suffering in love that finds comfort in stillness and dreams, infusing the accompaniment with a gentle, rocking figure that invokes the hypnotism of a lullaby.